Cynthia Breazeal
Professor of media arts and sciences at MIT and dean for digital learning at MIT Open Learning
A pioneer of social robotics at MIT who built Kismet and co-founded Jibo, and who leads AI literacy efforts for young people.
Biography
Cynthia Breazeal is an American AI and robotics scientist and entrepreneur who pioneered social robotics and human-robot interaction. She earned a BSc in electrical and computer engineering from UC Santa Barbara in 1989 and an MS in 1993 and ScD in 2000, both in electrical engineering and computer science, from MIT. After watching NASA land a robot on Mars in 1997, she turned to building robots for everyday life.
For her doctorate under Rodney Brooks she built Kismet, which explored expressive social-emotional exchange between humans and autonomous robots and has been on display at the MIT Museum since 2000. She founded and directs the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, co-founded the companion-robot company Jibo in 2012, and in 2021 launched the MIT RAISE Initiative on AI's creative potential and ethical use in K-12 education. In January 2022 she became MIT's dean for digital learning.
Notable contributions
Built Kismet, an early social robot
Developed Kismet as her doctoral thesis, exploring expressive social-emotional exchange between humans and robots; it has been on display at the MIT Museum since 2000.
Co-founded Jibo
Co-founded Jibo in 2012, a company that developed companion robots for the family at home, and served as its chief scientist and chief experience officer.
Launched the MIT RAISE Initiative
With Eric Klopfer and Hal Abelson, launched MIT RAISE in 2021 to investigate AI's creative potential and ethical use, particularly in K-12 education.
